Lux in Tenebris: The Visual and the Symbolic in Western Esotericism

517 Pages·2016·14.02 MB·English

by  Peter J Forshaw (ed.)

Lux in Tenebris
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Aries Book Series
Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism
Editor
Marco Pasi
Editorial Board
Jean-Pierre Brach
Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Andreas Kilcher
Advisory Board
Allison Coudert – Antoine Faivre – Olav Hammer
Monika Neugebauer-Wölk – Mark Sedgwick – Jan Snoek
György Szőnyi – Garry Trompf
VOLUME 23
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/arbs
Lux in Tenebris
The Visual and the Symbolic in Western Esotericism
Edited by
Peter J. Forshaw
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Forshaw, Peter J., editor.
Title: Lux in Tenebris: The Visual and the Symbolic in Western Esotericism /
edited by Peter J. Forshaw.
Description: Boston : Brill, 2017. | Series: Aries Book Series. Texts and
Studies in Western Esotericism, ISSN 1871-1405 ; VOLUME 23 | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016043391 (print) | LCCN 2016049289 (ebook) | ISBN
9789004334946 (hardback) : alk. paper) | ISBN 9789004334953 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Occultism. | Occultism in art. | Signs and symbols. |
Symbolism.
Classification: LCC BF1439 .L89 2016 (print) | LCC BF1439 (ebook) | DDC
135--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016043391
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 1871-1405
isbn 978-90-04-33494-6 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-33495-3 (e-book)
Copyright 2017 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and
Hotei Publishing.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
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To Rosalie,
creatrix, inspiratrix, inventrix nostra,
cum amore.
∵

Contents
Acknowledgements XI
List of Illustrations XII
Notes on Contributors XV
Introduction: The Visual and the Symbolic in Western Esotericism 1
Peter J. Forshaw
part 1
Middle Ages and Early Modernity
1 Visual and Acoustic Symbols in Gikatilla, Neoplatonic and Pythagorean
Thought 21
Elke Morlok
2 Transfiguration and the Fire within: Marsilio Ficino on the Metaphysics
and Psychology of Light 50
Michael J.B. Allen
3 The Memory Theatre of Giulio Camillo: Alchemy, Rhetoric, and
Deification in the Renaissance 66
Lina Bolzoni
4 Agrippa’s Cosmic Ladder: Building a World with Words in the De Occulta
Philosophia 81
Noel Putnik
5 Imagining the Image of God: Corporeal Envisioning in the Theosophy of
Jacob Böhme 103
Joshua Levi Ian Gentzke
6 Dreams and Symbols in The Chemical Wedding 130
Thomas Willard
7 The Mind’s Eye: Images of Creation and Revelation in Mystical Theology
and Theosophy 152
Theodor Harmsen
viii Contents
8 Where Geometry Meets Kabbalah: Paul Yvon’s Esoteric
Engravings 179
Carsten L. Wilke
9 De Sapientia Salomonis: Emanuel Swedenborg and the
Kabbalah 206
Susanna Åkerman-Hjern
10 The Arcanes of the World. Symbols and Mystical-Allegorical
Exegesis in Emanuel Swedenborg’s De Cultu et Amore Dei 220
Francesca Maria Crasta and Laura Follesa
11 Signs in the Sky: The Tobol’sk Chronicle and Celestial Divination in
Russia, 1695–1734 240
Robert Collis
part 2
Modernity and Postmodernity
12 Myth and Magic: Victorian Enoch and Historical Contexts 269
György E. Szönyi
13 The Juncture of Transcendence and Concretion: Symbolique in
René Schwaller de Lubicz 296
Aaron Cheak
14 The Symbology of Hermeticism in the Work of Julius Evola 334
Hans Thomas Hakl
15 The Iconography of Coniunctio Oppositorum: Visual and Verbal
Dialogues in Ithell Colquhoun’s Oeuvre 363
Victoria Ferentinou
16 Modern Angels, Avant-Gardes and the Esoteric Archive 397
Jonathan Schorsch
17 The Death of the Author and the Birth of the Luciferian Reader:
Ur-images, Postmodernity and Semiotic Self-Apotheosis 425
Per Faxneld
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Contents ix
18 Esoteric Theories of Color 447
Joscelyn Godwin
Index of Names 477
Index of Subjects 483
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